The Psychic(1977)

Ok, so I am an Italian horror freak!! Argento and Fulci are gods to me. So by some chance this 1977 Lucio Fulci film has alluded me. So when my friend Jackie gave me a copy, for some reason, I filed it away and didn't watch it. I guess the same reason that I never rented it when it was on VHS years ago, I was afraid that it wasn't gonna live up to meisterworks like The House By The Cemetary, or The Gates Of Hell.

So last night, I am pilfering about to find a movie to watch, and it gleamed out at me like a beacon in the night. I slapped it into the DVD player, and sat back to watch a good ole' Italian gore-fest. Well, that's not exactly what I got!! The film begins in a flashback, and a little girl witnesses a woman take a swan dive off of a cliff. In true Fulci fashion, it shows close ups of the womans face slamming into the cliff on the way down, and getting pulverized with every blow! I was so excited......well, that's where the gore ends in this film. Don't get me wrong it's a very good film, but it is a giallo film, and not really a horror film. I really did like the film, not as much as his earlier efforts, but the acting was good, and the suspense was top-notch.

Jennifer O' Niel stars as a psychic, who marries a very wealthy, older man, who seems to be very suspicious. When she starts having premonitions about a certain room, and a woman being bricked up inside of a wall(alive), she starts investigating. When she decides to redecorate one of her husbands villas, she finds that the room that she has seen in her visions, in is fact, in her husbands house. She enlists the help of her psychiatrist, to help her solve the mystery of the body in the wall. Her husband thinks she is crazy, and she is starting to think he knows more than he is saying. In order for me to avoid spoilers, I won't say anymore about the plotline.

If you are in the mood for some Italian horror, that is lite on the gore, and heavy on the suspense, you could do a lot worse than this little film. Severin Entertainment has put this out on DVD finally, it does look a little like a video transfer, but I think that it adds to the ambiance of the film. Check it out!!